Jewish public culture in the late Russian empire / Jeffrey Veidlinger.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Veidlinger, Jeffrey, 1971-

Series:

The modern Jewish experience

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Jews--Russia--Intellectual life.

Jews.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (404 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Bloomington ; Indianapolis : Indiana University Press, c2009.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In the midst of the violent, revolutionary turmoil that accompanied the last decade of tsarist rule in the Russian Empire, many Jews came to reject what they regarded as the apocalyptic and utopian prophecies of political dreamers and religious fanatics, preferring instead to focus on the promotion of cultural development in the present. Jewish Public Culture in the Late Russian Empire examines the cultural identities that Jews were creating and disseminating through voluntary associations such as libraries, drama circles, literary clubs, historical societies, and even fire brigades. Jeffrey Veidlinger explores the venues in which prominent cultural figures -- including Sholem Aleichem, Mendele Moykher Sforim, and Simon Dubnov -- interacted with the general Jewish public, encouraging Jewish expression within Russia's multicultural society. By highlighting the cultural experiences shared by Jews of diverse social backgrounds -- from seamstresses to parliamentarians -- and in disparate geographic locales -- from Ukrainian shtetls to Polish metropolises -- the book revises traditional views of Jewish society in the late Russian Empire.

Contents:

Introduction: Jewish public culture

The Jews of this world

Libraries: from the study hall to the public library

Reading: from sacred duty to leisure time

Literary societies: the culture of language and the language of culture

Cultural performance: the people of the book and the spoken word

Theater: the professionalization of performance

Musical and dramatic societies: amateur performers and audiences

The Jewish historical and ethnographic society: collecting the Jewish past

Public history: imagining Russian Jews

Conclusion: this world and the next.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0-253-00298-2

9786612238246

1-282-23824-8

OCLC:

646814570